About 180 workers walked off the job yesterday after a union heavyweight, Joe McDonald from the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) was denied access by Woodside, which operates the project on behalf of six joint venture partners.

"We just want to get on the Burrup and service our members, like the AWU and AMU," Mr McDonald said. "We should never have locked out.

"We make no apologies for how we play the game, we are going to get access to serve our membership."

A spokeswoman for Woodside said while the union was party to the site agreement, the company did acknowledge a Federal right of entry existed but attempts to secure details of this right were unsuccessful yesterday. The project hoped talks would continue today.

This bout of industrial action follows a strike earlier this month which saw a third of the construction workforce - about 300 contractors - leave the site for days in a bid to secure payments for competency tests and travel to and from work.